Fintech Deals in South East Asia Hit Record Numbers in 2016

The total number of venture-backed deals to fintech companies in South East Asia (i.e. Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam) reached record highs in 2016 according to data released by CB Insights recently.

Deals Up, Dollars Down

2016 saw 71 total deals in the region as compared to 55 the previous year, a 29% increase.

However, the dollar amount raised fell from $177M in 2015 to $158M in 2016 suggesting the increase in the number of deals was spurred more by smaller early stage funding (e.g. seed and angel rounds). In fact, early stage funding as a percentage of the total number of deals increased from 55% in 2015 to 62% in 2016. This decline was somewhat representative of what was happening around the rest of the world but the increase in early stage funding was interesting as some other regions saw growth in more mature companies and not so much in early stage rounds.

Notably, the region saw its first Series D funding for fintech companies when 2C2P, a merchant payment platform based in Bangkok, Thailand, raised $8M in a Series D near the end of the year. The biggest deal of the year for Southeast Asia? Momo, a mobile payments platform, led the pack with a Series B funding round that came in at $28 million.